UPDATE: IHIT confirming victim of last night's Burnaby shooting at Market Crossing is 23-year old Jaskeert Kalkat, known gang member linked to the Brothers Keepers. Two other victims -man and woman- also targeted. Both with severe injuries, expected to survive. Burned out vehicle in Surrey connected to shooting. The two people injured, a man and a woman in their 20s, remain in hospital with serious injuries.
This shooting is gang related. Sgt Frank Jang of IHIT says they’re hoping for a repeat of last week in which charges were laid in the fatal Burnaby shooting.
Jang is asking family members who know their sons are involved in gang life. Addressing parents who are perhaps feeling “powerless.” “For those who are involved in this, we are coming after you.” Refers to anyone who committed shooting and knows anything about burned vehicles.
There have been 11 shootings in B.C.'s Lower Mainland in less than a month, seven of them deadly and many of them in public places, including shopping centre parking lots, outside restaurants and outside the international departure terminal at Vancouver's airport.
Three fatal shootings have occurred in the past week, two of them in Burnaby. Police have laid a first-degree murder charge in the death of a man in Burnaby on Saturday. On Sunday, an RCMP officer in a police cruiser caught up with a getaway vehicle in the airport shooting, but suspended the chase when someone fired shots, hitting the police vehicle. "We don't want further violence, but let us be clear.
For those who are involved in this, we are coming after you. We are coming after every single one of you. And if you are complicit, you are aiding and abetting," Jang said. Despite many of the victims being known to police, or being known to have gang affiliations, Jang said he wouldn't classify this as a "gang war." He said the term "war" should be used with respect for soldiers who go off to a real war. "This is not a war. These are reckless young men who happen to have access to very dangerous weapons, who are using our public streets to conduct revenge killings based on money, drugs, (and) other motives." Farnworth said police chiefs told him the RCMP, municipal forces and gang, homicide and crime units are working together to "deal with this scourge that is taking place right now." "These gangsters, there's only two ways this is going to end. It's either jail or they're dead. If they're dead they're not mourned by anybody but their family because they're forgotten by everybody else."
A joint statement released Friday and signed by a dozen police leaders says the partnership with policing agencies in the region on the gang-violence issue is unprecedented. The statement says an intelligence-led enforcement effort is underway, which includes overt and covert operations, targeting people who pose the highest risk to public safety and increasing interaction with those involved in gangs.
Farnworth urged citizens who had any information about gang violence to contact police and warned gang members they face a dark future of incarceration or death. While not speaking directly to the most recent murder, Jang said too many times during such investigations police have seen instances where suspects in one gang hit are the victims in another. "It really speaks to this tit for tat, back and forth, 'you shoot me I shoot you' mentality with these reckless young men." Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley acknowledged that the brazen nature of the shootings has left many people feeling on edge. "What is happening in our region, right now, is completely unacceptable. We will not tolerate this," he said. "This cycle of violence must end."
EARLIER STORY:
Large police presence in Burnaby as Burnaby RCMP have responded to reports of a shooting at Market Crossing near the intersection of Byrne and Marine near Cactub Club.
The initial investigation shows this shooting "does not appear to be a random act,". They found one man with gunshot wounds and despite all attempts to revive him, they said he succumbed to his injuries. The other two who were wounded are recovering in hospital. The victim is a young man linked to the Brothers Keepers.
Passenger side of the BMW ridden with 13 bullet holes.
#BurnabyFrontline officers and Gang Team are responding to a shooting at Market Crossing. Please avoid the area. Investigators are on scene. More info to come. pic.twitter.com/vLAOMaxSel
— Burnaby RCMP (@BurnabyRCMP) May 14, 2021
According to witnesses at least two people got shot in the parking lot in front of the restaurant. The Mounties and Emergency vehicles have been at the scene since is about 8pm.
Helicpoter also on scene. The parking lot at Cactus Club Cafe is closed to the public for the time being.
The shooting happened just hours after Mike Farnworth, B.C.'s solicitor general, met with representatives from police agencies to get a full sense of the "intolerable" situation facing Lower Mainland communities as a gang conflict rages on. Thursday's meeting followed a recent spate of shootings that have left gang members dead or injured on streets, in mall parking lots and at Vancouver's airport.
Joint Statement from the Lower Mainland Police Chiefs & Commanders regarding the recent gang violence in the Lower Mainland. Read statement here: https://t.co/N4YvLFa0Xe pic.twitter.com/SU66ZwlaXP
— Delta Police (@deltapolice) May 14, 2021
At a news conference earlier in the day, Farnworth said the meeting would be a chance to hear about how the different law enforcement agencies are working together. "It's also an opportunity to identify any potential gaps," he said. "Police said it's not about resources so I also want to make sure there's not any other areas we need to be focusing on." The public needs to know that "every tool and every resource" is brought to bear on this recent upsurge in gang violence, he said. "The police are doing everything we can," Farnworth added. "The message to the public is that we are all focused on this."
The latest shooting Thursday night comes after a 28-year-old gang member was killed outside the departure terminal at Vancouver's airport on Sunday. Karman Grewal, 28, was gunned down outside the departure terminal. Police roadblocks, air support and even a running gun confrontation with an RCMP officer couldn't stop the suspects from escaping. The police pursuit of a suspected getaway car ended when an occupant of the vehicle fired at law enforcement, striking the cruiser's windshield without harming an officer, investigators said. Grewal was one of five men named by RCMP as targets of shots-fired incidents in a 2017 news release.
Although they were victims or intended victims, the Mounties believed the men to be a risk to public safety because they refused to speak with investigators. Police cautioned anyone against interacting with Grewal and the others because of their status as targets. Meanwhile, police announced on Monday that Ahmed Tahir has been charged with first-degree murder for a shooting in Burnaby last Saturday that left Toni Dalipi, 19, dead and injured a bystander. Premier John Horgan said this week that the government wants to make sure it's "focused like a laser" on addressing criminality. "The first order of business of course is to stop the flow of young people into the gang lifestyle," he said Tuesday. "But clearly the brazen nature of the violence we've seen over the past two weeks requires law enforcement intervention."
Martin Bouchard, a professor in Simon Fraser University's school of criminology, said gang violence follows its own course regardless of what the initial motive was for the conflict. These gang conflicts tend to go in cycles and once they start, Bouchard said they take on a life of their own. "Sometimes these start based on perception of disrespect between two people," he said. "It could be, you know, a romantic relationship gone wrong. Regardless of the initial motive, we are in a cycle of retaliation. It will follow its course to its — hopefully — conclusion very soon."
IHIT has taken over the investigation.
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